If I ruled the world, or at least America, I would simply roll the cost of the tip into the food and pay waiters a decent wage.

But until that magical moment when I get to tell everyone else how to live rolls around, you have to tip and you have to tip appropriately unless the waiter does something royally bad.

I went to the store yesterday to buy groceries and my entire bill was less than $138. Unless I run out of milk, I'm probably not going back for another week. If you can afford to drop that on one meal, you can afford to tip.